In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Speech and Language Therapy teaching at NUI Galway, the University will hold a one-day seminar on Evidence Based Practice on Friday, 14 June. Entitled ‘Evidence-Based Practice: Bercow and back again - practice, policy and its implications for children with speech and language and communication needs (SLCN)’, the seminar will focus on the findings of the Better Communication Research Programme (BCRP), the largest practice related research programme ever funded for children with SLCN.

Keynote speaker, Professor James Law, Professor of Speech and Language Science at the University of Newcastle, England will discuss the outcomes of this large research programme, as well as ways in which practitioners can incorporate evidence-based practice into the services they provide. He has had a distinguished career in research on developmental language and communication impairments. He is an editor on the Cochrane Collaboration Developmental, Psychosocial and Behaviour Problems Group and carried out the first Cochrane review of intervention for children with primary speech and language delays/disorders in 2003.

Professor Law is one of the key researchers in a large scale research project in the UK, the BCRP. This research was commissioned in response to the Bercow Review, which was a review of services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. The BCRP was designed as a rigorous research programme that would be useful for practitioners, researchers, policy makers, as well as parents and young people with communication impairments. The BCRP comprised 10 major research projects including the evidence base for current practice including indicative costs, and the perspectives of parents and children regarding the services they use and the outcomes they value.

Rena Lyons, Head of the Discipline of Speech and Language Therapy, said: “We are honoured and delighted to have Professor Law in NUI Galway. Sometimes there is a challenge linking research with practice. Clinicians need to access research findings to inform their practice. This seminar will be very useful for clinicians as they will hear first-hand about the results of this large scale research project.”